The Foothills Falcons have changed things up a bit offensively this year.
The guy who used to be throwing touchdowns passes, is now catching them.
It turns out former quarterback Devan Karl is a quick study.
He had four touchdowns in the Falcons’ 41-21 victory over the McCoy Colts Aug. 26 in Medicine Hat. He’s happy with being a receiver/running back for the Falcons.
“It works better for me and plus it works better for the team,” said Karl. “I was a receiver in my first year of Bantam when I was in Grade 7, but ever since then I have played some quarterback.”
Two of his touchdowns came from the strong-right arm of Grade 11 student Taylor Armsworthy, who was Karl’s understudy last season. Karl estimated he had 85 yards receiving.
“Taylor’s arm has gotten a lot stronger this year,” Karl said. “He has to work a little bit on his reads (reading defence) but I am helping him on the sidelines.”
It’s not as if Armsworthy came down from the stands and just started flinging a football. He started some games last season when Karl was injured. As well, he was one of the quarterbacks for Team Alberta U-18s that finished second at the Canada Cup in Lethbridge in the summer.
“My favourite touchdown was when Taylor threw me a corner route and I was able to walk into the end zone,” Karl said. “It was about 35 or 40 yards and Taylor put it right there. He’s got a good arm.”
It was Falcons coach Greg McLeod’s first game as the head coach. He might have thought of turning in his whistle after the Colts sprinted into the end zone from about 60 yards out on their first play from scrimmage.
“We started off with a really young crew, some inexperienced, brand new football players on to start the game and they found out what high school football is all about in a real hurry,” McLeod said. “But it wasn’t something we can’t defend or correct.”
McLeod said the Falcons wanted to have his troops playing only one-way in the first game of the season, in order to give his players experience after only a few days of practice.
The Falcons were able to settle down after the Colts’ opening touchdown. They built up a 21-14 lead at half-time and they dominated the second half en route to the 41-21 victory.
Their final touchdown came when the Colts were driving late in the game. A McCoy pass to the flats was picked off by the Falcons DB Dallas Toso who scampered in from 103 yards out for the major.
“It was just an out pattern and I was able to pick it off at about the five-yard line and take it into the end zone,” Toso said.
Thomas Kurth got the Falcons’ first touchdown when he hauled in an Armsworthy pass in the end zone.
The Falcons’ two other touchdowns came from Karl rushing them in from the running back position.
“It was a win, but it was Week 1, there is definitely a lot that we can learn from it to get better,” McLeod said. “Things like playing to the whistle, a lot of basic stuff. It was a quick week of practice and we had some blown assignments. There is a lot of refinement we have to do.”
He won’t be refining the QB or the new receiver too much.
Having a quarterback with Team Alberta experience helped make the decision to put Karl at receiver an easier one.
“He’s such a great athlete that it gives us more flexibility to do more things offensively,” McLeod said o Karl. “He can play wide out, fly, tailback and quarterback if we need to… Taylor is fantastic.”
The Falcons are in Edmonton on Sept. 2 to play the Austin O’Brien Crusaders.
